Teaching

Teaching

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching is built around three habits I make visible to every student: scaffolding, operational definitions, and observable behavior. I want students to leave my classroom or my lab able to break a vague task into concrete next steps, define what they're working with precisely enough to measure it, and recognize what changed as they improved. These habits keep students moving when the material gets hard.

I'm deliberate about being approachable. No question is one a student should already know. I run frequent low-stakes polls during lectures to surface confusion early and to model that asking is part of learning. The students who do the best in my courses tend to be the ones who feel safe enough to say what they don't yet understand.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

MSU undergraduates can earn research credit through PSY 4000 by working in the Grandfamilies Lab. We look for students who can commit a minimum of two semesters and who have an overall GPA of 3.5 or higher. Lab hours run three per week per credit.

To apply, complete the Grandfamilies Lab application.

Beginning in Spring 2027, my course PSY 4503 offers a course-based research experience to about 45 students per term. The course uses the General Social Survey to scaffold students from theory selection through poster presentation, with an emphasis on producing publishable-quality work.

Graduate Mentoring

I mentor graduate students in clinical psychology with a research focus that fits one of my three lines of work. My approach centers on weekly SMART goals, transparent expectations, and lab structures that celebrate progress alongside outcomes. Recent doctoral mentees have gone on to a clinical postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, a clinical directorship at Nationwide Children's Hospital, an assistant professorship in the University of South Florida College of Nursing, staff psychologist roles at the Nashville and Sedalia VAs, and private practice ownership. The work of widening access to research and graduate-school preparation runs through everything I do as a mentor, and comes directly from being a first-generation student myself.

Courses I Teach

PSY 3803
Introduction to Developmental Psychology

Survey of psychological development across the lifespan, from prenatal foundations through later life, with attention to the social and cultural contexts that shape development.

PSY 3363
Behavior Modification

Principles and applications of operant and classical conditioning to behavior change, with hands-on attention to designing and evaluating behavior change programs.

PSY 4503
Applied Research, Analysis, and Communication in Psychology

Course-based undergraduate research experience launching in Spring 2027. Students develop and test original research questions using the General Social Survey, working independently from theory selection through analysis to a poster presentation at the MSU Undergraduate Research Symposium. Alongside the research, the course teaches the professional documents students need to apply to graduate programs: CV entries, personal statements, and letters of recommendation requests.

PSY 8623
Advanced Social and Developmental Psychology

Graduate seminar pairing foundational chapters with recent empirical articles in social and developmental psychology. Students complete a comprehensive interaction examination and design and present an original mini-experiment integrating developmental and social variables.